Rachael Rollins

Rachael Rollins

: Photo from Wikimedia Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rachael_Rollins.png / Author of Photo: RWUEDU / Source of Photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMzpB-Qqew

Overview

* Served as a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Boston, 1999-2002
* Was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, 2007-2011
* Was elected Suffolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney in 2018
* Was appointed by President Biden as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 2021
* Resigned in disgrace from her U.S. Attorney post in May 2023


Rachael Splaine Rollins was born on March 3, 1971 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was a white, second-generation Irish-American who spent 40 years working as a public-school teacher in Boston. Her mother was black, the daughter of immigrants from Barbados, who served 20 years as a nurse in Boston schools.

Raised in Cambridge with her four younger siblings, Rachael Rollins attended the local Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, one of the most elite private schools in the nation. She earned an athletic scholarship to play lacrosse at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and African-American Studies in 1994. Rollins also obtained a J.D. degree from the Northeastern University School of Law in 1997, and a Master of Laws in Labor and Employment Law from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1999.

In 1991, Rollins was charged with the misdemeanor crime of receiving stolen goods. She pleaded not guilty and paid court costs of $200. Five months later, the case was continued without a finding before it was eventually dismissed.

While attending law school, Rollins worked as a legal intern for both the NBA Players Association and U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Keeton. From 1997-1998, she served as a clerk for Judge Frederick Brown of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

From 1999-2002, Rollins was a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Boston, where, on behalf of union members, she prosecuted violations of the National Labor Relations Act and served as a collective bargaining representative.

From 2002-2006, Rollins was in private practice as an attorney for the global law firm of Bingham McCutchen LLC. Her work there focused variously on civil litigation, labor and employment, First Amendment issues, and criminal defense.

From 2007-2011, Rollins was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, where she worked on both criminal and civil cases. She subsequently served as General Counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation from 2011-2013, and to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority during 2012-2013. Rollins then held the post of Chief Legal Counsel to the Massachusetts Port Authority from 2013-2015.

From 2016-2018, Rollins worked as a Project Manager Consultant for public-private partnerships in the Massachusetts area.

In 2018, Rollins, a Democrat, was elected as District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts — which includes the city of Boston — after campaigning on a platform that openly pledged to decriminalize 15 separate categories of offenses, including:

  • Trespassing
  • Shoplifting
  • Larceny under $250
  • Disorderly conduct
  • Disturbing the peace
  • Receiving stolen property
  • Minor driving offenses, including operating with a suspended or revoked license
  • Wanton or malicious destruction of property
  • Threats (excluding domestic violence)
  • Possession of alcohol by minors
  • Drug possession
  • Drug possession with intent to distribute
  • Resisting arrest where the only charge is resisting arrest
  • Resisting arrest if the other charges include only charges that fall under the list of charges for which prosecution is declined
  • Breaking and entering, where it is into a vacant property or is for the purpose of sleeping or seeking refuge from the cold and there is no actual damage to property [1]

Rollins’ official campaign website stated that instead of prosecuting these crimes, they would be “outright dismissed” or “diverted and treated as a civil infraction.” Her campaign was supported by the leftist billionaire George Soros.

In a September 2018 appearance on Fox News, Rollins articulated her belief that “we have too many people in jail who are not violent. And we can disagree [about] what violence is, and I respect that and understand it. But I believe that we are spending too much time on petty crimes that are clogging up our system and costing us more money…. They’re more social problems than they are crimes.”

The motivations inevitably created by Rollins’ soft-on-crime policies were vividly on display in a May 2019 case in which a 59-year-old career criminal was dismayed when he was arrested for shoplifting, having mistakenly believed that the store he had just robbed was located within Suffolk County, and that he therefore would not be punished for committing the crime.

Rollins crime-related policies grow directly out of her profound distaste for racial disparities in the respective arrest and incarceration rates of blacks and whites. As a December 2021 report in The Daily Mail puts it: “Rollins is part of a movement of ‘progressive prosecutors’ who seek to eliminate racial disparities in the justice system and reject a traditional ‘tough on crime’ culture that they say has led to the disproportionate incarceration of black men.”

In April 2019, Rollins criticized Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s administration for having an insufficient number of nonwhite minority members. Following the Baker administration’s criticism of her lax prosecution policies, Rollins declared: “The people that think they understand our community but don’t have a single black secretary in their cabinet — you’re not going to have a job pretty soon.”

After Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Thomas Turco issued a memo warning of the dangers inherent in Rollins’ newly implemented crime policies, a number of her supporters came to her defense at a rally in early April 2019. “We stand with our duly-elected district attorney Rachael Rollins…. We’re here to send a strong message to anyone who would come against her: She is our district attorney. Hands off our D.A.,” said Randy Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam’s Mosque No. 11 in Boston. Rollins was also defended by such notables as Representative Ayanna Pressley and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

Under Rollins’ watch in 2020, Boston experienced a 62% rise in commercial burglaries and a 54% increase in murders, which included a 60% spike in fatal shootings.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s infamous death at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Rollins, citing the names of several blacks who had been killed or harassed by whites in recent years, tweeted: “Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. Christian Cooper. While we [blacks] are being murdered at will by the police & their proxy, privileged [white] racists like Amy Cooper play the victim. No more apologies. No more words. Demand action. Radical change now. Nothing less.”

On another occasion in early June 2020, Rollins told news reporters: “As your elected district attorney, we have looked around this country and seen police officers — people that Black lives pay taxes to fund these positions — shoot us in the street as if we were animals.” Added Rollins: “People are disgusted and outraged, and they should be. And it is completely ironic to have to say to you [blacks], ‘Please don’t be violent. Please keep your voice down. Please be silent and comply with all of the police’s requirements,’ when in fact it’s those very people that murder us with impunity. But that’s where we are right now.”

The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association condemned Rollins’ remarks for having “undoubtedly incited violence against the proud men and women of the Boston Police Department.” “Instead of slandering our officers as murderers, you should be highlighting their professionalism and dedication to our city,” the union’s leaders said. In reply, Rollins stated that the Boston police were simply demonstrating that “white fragility is real.”

As Black Lives Matter and other leftist organizations wreaked havoc on American cities and communities in hundreds of violent riots throughout 2020, Rollins asserted: “This burning rage that you are seeing when you turn your TV on or you hear in my voice is real. People are fed up, and to the white community that is now waking up to see this rage, we have been telling you this forever.” Minimizing the seriousness of those riots and the property damage they had caused, Rollins quipped that “buildings can be fixed,” whereas blacks who had been “lynched and murdered” by police would be gone forever.

In February 2020, Rollins participated in a panel discussion alongside fellow leftist District Attorneys Marilyn Mosby of Baltimore and Chesa Boudin of San Francisco. Another participant was then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, McGregor Scott, a self-described “progressive” prosecutor who criticized Rollins’ policies for: (a) undermining the role and province of the legislative branch of government, and (b) leading consistently to higher violent-crime rates. In response, Rollins stated: “I will say, as one of less than 1 percent of actual people with melanin that are in this role … I really don’t have much time for more white men telling me what communities of color need.”

In April 2020, when the deadly COVID-19 pandemic caused by the highly contagious coronavirus was shifting into high gear, Rollins wrote a letter to Governor Baker requesting that he allow more incarcerated criminals to be set free in order to reduce prison crowding and thereby minimize the potential spread of the pandemic behind prison walls. Citing guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention as well as a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court order, Rollins argued that the 637 Massachusetts inmates who had already been released for this purpose was a “woefully inadequate” number.

On August 25, 2020, Rollins co-authored a Politico piece entitled “Prosecutors Are Not Exempt from Criticism,” along with fellow leftist prosecutors Satana Deberry, Kim Gardner, Kim Foxx, and Diana Becton. Characterizing the American justice system as an institution rife with racism, the article started with the following words: “Our criminal legal system was constructed to control Black people and people of color. Its injustices are not new but are deeply rooted in our country’s shameful history of slavery and legacy of racial violence. The system is acting exactly as it was intended to, and that is the problem.”

Articulating a shared desire to “transform the broader criminal legal system,” Rollins and her Politico co-authors urged fellow prosecutors to adhere to the following “commitments”:

  1. Do not prosecute peaceful protesters. Citizens have a right to protest, and prosecutions can antagonize marginalized communities.
  2. Do not accept any funding from police unions. This will ensure our offices’ independence, and the ability to hold police accountable for injustice and misconduct.
  3. Require the review of all available evidence — including body-worn camera and other video footage — in cases that rest solely on the testimony of an officer.
  4. Ban “No Knock” warrants and reexamine our policies for issuing warrants. “No Knock” warrants are a violation of individual rights and represent an overreach of police power.
  5. Hold police accountable by pursuing criminal charges against officers unlawfully using excessive force and other forms of state-sanctioned violence.
  6. By increasing our efforts to decline to prosecute certain low-level offenses, we can work to reverse the disproportionate impact the legal system has on Black people and low-income communities.
  7. Financially support and advocate for increases in funding to community-led and community-defined responses, restorative justice and violence prevention programs. Investing in community-led programs is crucial to addressing the racist origins of our legal system.
  8. Commit to using our office’s power and platform to advance discussions of divestment from the criminal legal system and toward community-led and community-defined responses to harm. Strong community support, restorative justice practices and diversion practices are key to dismantling the current legal system and shifting its focus from punishment toward justice.
  9. Develop grant-based community reinvestment programs to be administered in partnership with community-based partners.
  10. Solicit feedback from Black and brown community groups we were elected to serve through public, virtual forums…. Only by listening to the most impacted communities and advocates and bringing them to the table, will we truly understand their greatest needs and biggest challenges.

While attempting to exit a Boston mall parking lot with her car in December 2020, Rollins became involved in a heated altercation with a white driver named Katie Lawson, who happened to be a registered Democrat. Thinking that Lawson had attempted to cut her off with her vehicle, Rollins, pretending to be a police officer, turned on the strobes and sirens with which her car was illegally equipped, and she threatened to write Lawson a ticket. After the altercation ended, Lawson, thinking that Rollins was in fact a policewoman, wrote down the license plate number of of Rollins’ car and subsequently called the Boston Police Department to complain about the rude treatment she had received. When it was learned that Rollins was not in fact a police officer, local news reporters went to her house in hopes of questioning her about the incident. Rollins demanded to know how the news team had found her home, and they told her that the address was a matter of public record. “That’s unbelievable,” Rollins replied. “So as a Black woman, in this moment in this country, you’re going to put my f**king house on screen?” Added Rollins: “I’ll call the police on you and make an allegation…. So the rantings of a white woman get you here and scare my children?” Rollins also warned one journalist: “Get off our private property. And I swear to God, I’m dead serious. I will find your name.” In addition, Rollins said: “Get away from my family. Speak to me at my job. If I get hurt or harmed because of this, you are on the record for that, or my kids are f**king killed…. Who do you think you are? This is private property. Get out of here…. You know what I’ll do? I’ll call the police on you and make an allegation, and we’ll see how that works for you.”

In February 2021, Rollins defended the Black Lives Matter movement in a tweet that said: “Not only do Black lives matter, but Black lives make our society significantly better every single day. A beautiful resistance is the simple belief and knowledge that we as Black people are always more than enough.”

On July 26, 2021, the White House announced that President Joe Biden was nominating Rollins to serve as a U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. The Senate vote was held on December 8 and was split evenly, 50-50, along party lines, leaving Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote that secured Rollins’ confirmation as a federal prosecutor.

Among Rollins’ high-profile supporters were Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

On November 7, 2022, The Associated Press reported that sometime during the preceding few weeks, the office of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz had opened an ethics investigation of Rollins, prompted by: (a) her decision — against legal advice which she received from her own office — to appear in July 2022 at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser featuring First Lady Jill Biden; (b) her use of her personal cellphone to conduct official business; and (c) a trip she took to California that was paid for by an outside group.

On May 16, 2023, Rollins announced that she would be resigning from her post as U.S. Attorney on May 19. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Special Counsel Henry Kerner and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released reports which concluded that Rollins had repeatedly leaked sensitive, damaging information to a Boston Herald reporter in an effort to influence a political election. Specifically, it was information which created the false perception that Kevin Hayden, who was running in the primary election for Suffolk County District Attorney against a Rollins ally named Ricardo Arroyo, was the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation at that time. By so attempting to influence the Suffolk primary, said the Horowitz report, Rollins had violated the Hatch Act, a federal law limiting what federal employees are permitted to do in partisan races. Added Horowitz in his report: “We found Rollins’s conduct described throughout this report violated federal regulations, numerous DOJ policies, her Ethics Agreement, and applicable law, and fell far short of the standards of professionalism and judgment that the Department should expect of any employee, much less a U.S. Attorney.” Moreover, the report said that when Horowitz had referred Rollins’ alleged false statements to the DOJ for criminal prosecution, the Department “declined prosecution.”

In a similar vein, Special Counsel Kerner wrote in his report to President Joe Biden: “Ms. Rollins’s conduct in leaking non‐public DOJ information constitutes an extraordinary abuse of her authority and threatens to erode public confidence in the integrity of federal law enforcement actions.”

Footnotes:


  1. As a Heritage Foundation report noted in November 2020: “In other words, in Boston, a violent career felon can break into your home, be in possession of cocaine, plan to distribute that cocaine to others, and resist arrest after you call the police, and all the charges will be ‘outright dismissed,’ so long as the reason he broke into your house—and terrified your family—was because he wanted ‘to sleep’ or was ‘seeking refuge’ from the cold.”

Additional Resources:


Meet Rachael Rollins, the Rogue Prosecutor Whose Policies Are Wreaking Havoc in Boston
By Charles Stimson and Zack Smith
November 12, 202

She Cheered BLM Rage. Biden Picked Her as a Federal Prosecutor.
By Daniel Greenfield
July 30, 2021

Meet Rachael Rollins
By PowerLine Blog
December 10, 2021

 

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